entarius; and after its capture, in
the deaths of Manlius Capitolinus, and of the son of Manlius Torquatus
in the prosecution of his master of the knights by Papirius Cursor, and
in the impeachment of the Scipios. Such examples as these, being signal
and extraordinary, had the effect, whenever they took place, of bringing
men back to the true standard of right; but when they came to be of
rarer occurrence, they left men more leisure to grow corrupted, and were
attended by greater danger and disturbance. Wherefore, between one and
another of these vindications of the laws, no more than ten years, at
most, ought to intervene; because after that time men begin to change
their manners and to disregard the laws; and if nothing occur to recall
the idea of punishment, and unless fear resume its hold on their minds,
so many offenders suddenly spring up together that it is impossible to
punish them without danger. And to this purport it used to be said
by those who ruled Florence from the year 1434 to 1494, that their
government could hardly be maintained unless it was renewed every five
years; by which they meant that it was necessary for them to arouse the
same terror and alarm in men's minds, as they inspired when they
first assumed the government, and when all who offended against their
authority were signally chastised. For when the recollection of such
chastisement has died out, men are emboldened to engage in new designs,
and to speak ill of their rulers; for which the only remedy is to
restore things to what they were at first.

A republic may, likewise, be brought back to its original form, without
recourse to ordinances for enforcing justice, by the mere virtues of a
single citizen, by reason that these virtues are of such influence and
authority that good men love to imitate them, and bad men are ashamed
to depart from them. Those to whom Rome owed most for services of this
sort, were Horatius Cocles, Mutius Scaevola, the two Decii, Atilius
Regulus, and divers others, whose rare excellence and generous example
wrought for their city almost the same results as might have been
effected by ordinances and laws. And if to these instances of individual
worth had been added, every ten years, some signal enforcement of
justice, it would have been impossible for Rome ever to have grown
corrupted. But when both of these incitements to virtuous behavior began
to recur less frequently, corruption spread, and after the time of
Ati